Consultancy – Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning at Palladium International

Project Overview:

• The Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) is a 7-year and €134 million programme funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that aims to create a prosperous future for 230,000 young women and men in the Middle East, North Africa, Sahel & West Africa and Horn of Africa regions. The Fund will be supporting initiatives in 12 focus countries that will offer youth, in particular young women, opportunities for work that is demand-driven and productive, offering a stable income and safe working conditions, and that is contributing to their personal development and social protection.
• The portfolio of projects is selected from business cases that were proposed by private sector, civil society and knowledge institutions. Each business case has outlined scalable solutions for creating more and better jobs and income generating opportunities for youth. Solutions in particular focus on an integrated approach that addresses the shortcomings on the demand side (jobs) and supply side (skills) and bridging the mismatch between these two in the labour market.
• Assignment Overview:
• CFYE seeks a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Consultant to support monitoring, evaluation and learning for Kenya’s country portfolio. The Consultant will provide MEL capacity building support as needed to Implementing Partners. This entails ensuring that CFYE’s MEL strategy is carried out consistently and that standards are adhered to across projects, identifying and helping to mitigate reporting/data quality risks, supporting the project reporting and review process, and contributing to program learning. At project level, the role involves working closely with Implementing Partners to assess and build their capacity to design fit-for-purpose MEL frameworks/approaches for their projects, and report results in line with CFYE requirements. This position is suitable for a mid-level MEL professional who is highly proactive, able to quickly learn and integrate new information, strong in coaching/capacity-building, and able to operate independently after initial training/onboarding (while maintaining good communication about progress and reaching out for support as needed on technical or operational questions).
• The consultant will report directly to the Country Lead and work closely, on a day-to-day basis, with CFYE Kenya MEL Advisor.

Specific Activities & Deliverables: 

Portfolio-level monitoring and data quality assurance:

• Review results (outputs and outcomes) submitted by Implementing Partners and conduct data quality assurance activities as per CFYE processes and guidelines (output validation, outcome verification, spot checks, site visits).
• Attend project progress review meetings (quarterly), and prompt IPs to reflect on/discuss learning related to their Results Chain (what’s working or not working within the project design).
• Support projects to update MEL Templates as required during implementation, based on learning and/or project design changes (in accordance with CFYE project change request process).
• Contribute to MEL TA Plans for assigned IPs with prioritized MEL support needs and follow up on IP progress in addressing any identified gaps, and conduct follow up assessments as required.
• Support the CFYE Kenya MEL Advisor to collect evidence of impact for select projects through targeted research/evaluation activities (e.g. in-depth interviews with IPs, youth beneficiaries or other stakeholders) to generate insights and learning and identify success stories.
• Liaise with the CFYE Kenya MEL Advisor on identifying specific learning opportunities within the projects/portfolio and help to draw out relevant insights related to the CFYE Theory of Change and Learning Agenda.
• Support the CFYE Kenya MEL Advisor to apply relevant ‘tags 'to projects and indicators in CFYE’s Data Management System, based on key project/job characteristics.
• Contribute to building the capacity of Implementing Partners on MEL related activities, which may include input into tools development, data collection, utilization, and dissemination.

Implementing Partner capacity building:

• Assess MEL capacity to determine level of support needed
• As needed, work with Implementing Partners to design appropriate data collection methods and data capture or monitoring tools (including approaches for establishing baselines, measuring job quality improvement, indicator progress tracking, etc.)
• Ensure Implementing Partners understand CFYE reporting requirements and processes (including how to complete results sheets and requirements for validation documents).

Learning:

• Working closely with Country team to contribute to strategy development for documenting existing situation and any good practices that have evolved
• Keep up to date with emerging and trending best practices among different Implementing Partners in their process of project implementation, in M & E tools and templates
• Extract and consolidate evidence and learning from the various consultants and partners / grantees involved in the project to identify best practice across the project.
• Participate in the design and maintenance the overall learning strategy with a focus on promoting knowledge acquisition, management, documentation, and dissemination. This entails ensuring the country’s learning agenda aligns and complements CFYE learning strategy and objectives, setting and executing of the appropriate learning system/functions for the project (facilitating regular meetings with IPs, collection, analysis, documentation, sharing relevant information, and support in documenting processes) in consultation with country team
• Support Country team to facilitate learning events to ensure promising practices, success/failure factors, lessons learned, and recommendations are identified across the Country portfolio. This will include participation in cross-country learning events, organizing reflection sessions (after-action reviews, learning to action discussions, quarterly reflection, etc.) with IPs (assessment workshops and self-evaluation sessions for various IPs), Country team, consolidating lessons learned, and capturing key successes within the project to promote adaptive management into project design and implementation.

Required Qualifications:

• This role will be based in Kenya and requires the incumbent to have understanding of the Kenyan context.
• Expertise in MEL, including experience developing and refining Results Chains/Theories of Change and Results Frameworks, indicator selection, baseline assessments, and setting targets.
• Demonstrated experience in capacity-building and supporting programme partners (preferably including private sector partners, such as SMEs) to develop and apply suitable MEL processes and tools, including creating an overall MEL strategy and plan to operationalise it.
• Experience working on job creation, youth, or women economic programmes and knowledge of the key data quality risks in job creation, youth, or women economic programmes preferable.
• Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to develop and maintain effective working relationships across teams and organisations.
• Excellent attention to detail and ability to effectively and efficiently perform multiple tasks and balance competing priorities while meeting timelines.
• Experience using both qualitative and quantitative data collection/research techniques and advising programme partners on the use of appropriate research techniques.
• Familiarity with the DCED Standard of Results Measurement preferable.
• Willing to travel to IPs around the country.
• Fluency in written and spoken English is compulsory.

Level of Effort:

• Up to 60 days over a period of 6 months (October 2024 – March 2024). The assignment is anticipated to start in October 2024.